Position on H.R. 8998, FY25 Interior Appropriations, and Amendments

On behalf of the National Parks Conservation Association’s (NPCA) more than 1.6 million members and supporters nationwide, I write to express our strong opposition to the Interior and Environment appropriations bill and urge you to oppose it. Since 1919, NPCA has been the leading voice of the American people in protecting and enhancing our National Park System and we know that funding our parks is one of their most urgent needs.

The bill seeks to cut the National Park Service (NPS) budget by $210 million (over six percent), which would set our parks and communities back significantly. This includes an unrealistic, deeply damaging cut of $179 million (over six percent) to the Operation of the National Park System. A cut of this magnitude would lead to the loss of hundreds of rangers and other staff, significantly undermining protection of natural and cultural resources as well as visitor services. On top of that, NPS would also have to absorb more than $50 million in uncontrollable fixed costs, leaving superintendents little choice but to leave positions lapsed, cut down on seasonal rangers, reduce hours at facilities or even furlough existing staff.

Making matters worse, the bill also cuts park construction funding by more than one-fifth, which would only lead to the growth of the deferred maintenance and repairs backlog that has attracted bipartisan concern and support for addressing it. The bill also includes a $20 million, 10% cut to the Historic Preservation Fund, undermining communities’ efforts to protect and interpret our historic and cultural legacy.

We are also concerned about the deep cuts in this bill to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), which are important agencies for protecting clean air and water and wildlife important to national parks and surrounding communities.

The bill includes policy riders that harm parks, communities, and the environment and climate on which they depend. For instance, the bill egregiously threatens water quality in Voyageurs National Park and Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness by reversing a mining ban that would prevent toxic mining in the Rainy River Watershed in Northern Minnesota. The bill also would prevent the designation of wilderness in Big Cypress National Preserve, an incredibly damaging effort that would undermine the ability for the National Park Service to more fully protect this popular park and home to the Florida panther and ghost orchid. This bill also directly undermines the protection of specific park species including lower-48 gray wolves and northern long-eared bats. Particularly egregious are policy riders that block funding for the North Cascades Grizzly Bear Ecosystem Restoration Plan and remove protections for the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem Grizzly Bear—beloved wildlife that so many visitors want to view on their visits to these parks. These are among the policy provisions in the underlying bill that deeply concern us.

This bill would set our national parks back significantly, threaten the economies of the many communities that rely on them for their livelihood, undermine the incremental progress addressing climate change, and significantly harm our air, water and wildlife.

We also urge you to oppose the following amendments that were made in order, which would undermine or harm national parks or the resources they were designated to protect:

Antiquities Act Attacks: Amendment #4 (Original #19) by Rep. Bentz (OR), Amendment #17 (Original #98) by Rep. Boebert (CO) and Amendment #89 (Original #152) by Rep. Stauber (MN): NPCA opposes these amendments that would undermine the use of the Antiquities Act, a law used to protect some of our most iconic land and important history. To restrict its implementation is nothing short of a betrayal to the American people and the land and history we’ve spent generations protecting as public lands. For over one hundred years, the Antiquities Act has been used as a bipartisan conservation tool. The law was created by Congress to allow the president to permanently protect federally owned historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest as national monuments. With the exception of the Organic Act of 1916, no law has had more influence over the development of the modern National Park System than the Antiquities Act. Nationally significant cultural, historic and natural sites such as Grand Canyon and Acadia National Parks, Statue of Liberty and Muir Woods National Monuments, and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park all owe their protections to the Antiquities Act. Efforts to undermine this bedrock conservation law will irreparably harm the ability to tell all American’s stories and limit a monument’s substantial influence to boost local economies and protect countless cultural, historic and natural resources.

Amendment #7 (Original #2), Amendment #8 (Original #7), Amendment #9 (Original #8), Amendment #19 (Original #5), Amendment #20 (Original #6), Amendment #57 (Original #185) and Amendment #91 (Original #3): NPCA opposes these amendments which would reduce the salary of officials at the Department of the Interior (DOI), Council on Environmental Quality and EPA to one dollar. Federal officials work to fulfill the president’s vision and should not be financially punished for doing so, regardless of differences in opinion over policy matters.

Amendment #13 (Original #70) by Rep. Boebert (CO): NPCA opposes this amendment which blocks funding for the Bureau of Land Management’s final rule titled ‘‘Fluid Mineral Leases and Leasing Process.’’ NPCA supports the BLM’s commonsense updates to its onshore oil and gas program that would protect national parks and their protected landscapes while having the oil and gas industry pay its fair share and carry the burden to clean up after themselves.

Amendment #14 (Original #77) by Rep. Boebert (CO), Amendment #25 (Original #16) by Brecheen (OK) and Amendment #85 (Original #22) by Rep. Roy (TX): NPCA opposes these amendments that seek to undermine DOI and other federal agencies’ efforts to address diversity in recruitment. The health of our national parks and public lands depends upon effective and enthusiastic staff. Funding for these efforts helps ensure that agencies like the National Park Service are well positioned to attract, retain, and sustain a workforce that is representative of the people the agency serves. Congress should support this laudable goal.

Amendment #30 (Original #41) by Rep. Cammack (FL): NPCA opposes this amendment which restricts the ability of an administration to issue new rules. Agencies should not be hamstrung by using cost as the only factor but should have the discretion to make lawful, thorough decisions in the public’s interest.

Amendment #41 (Original # 43) by Rep. Hageman (WY): NPCA opposes this amendment which would halt BLM’s update to its Western Solar Plan in the middle of the process. To protect national parks from climate change, we must increase renewable energy on public lands in a responsible way. This planning process is working with states, agencies, landowners and partners to ensure that all voices are heard and more solar is added in a way that does not adversely affect national parks and other lands and their users. The process should be allowed to come to completion.

Amendment #45 (Original #64) by Rep. Harshbarger (TN): NPCA opposes this amendment that would prohibit funding for the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. This is a federal body created in 1890 to maintain uniform geographic name usage throughout the federal government. We believe this is an important duty as Congress passes laws to designate and name natural and cultural sites across the country.

Amendment #47 (Original #96) by Rep. Jackson (TX): NPCA opposes this amendment which would significantly reduce funding for USFWS, including important Endangered Species Act (ESA) programs on which listed species rely to avoid extinction and recover. For 50 years, the ESA has been a critically important tool in the conservation and restoration of the more than 600 threatened and endangered species that depend on habitats in national parks.

Amendment #76 (Original #28) by Rep. Ogles (TN): NPCA opposes this amendment which would defund section 50262 of the Inflation Reduction Act on mineral leasing modernization. This provision seeks to nullify common sense reforms for the oil and gas industry that has not paid its fair share when using federal lands. The amendment would lower royalty rates and rental fees on public lands and reinstate noncompetitive leasing, which allows industry to lease lands below the normal rates.

Amendment #82 (Original #146) by Perry (PA): NPCA opposes this amendment to prohibit funding for the implementation of the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) “backstop.” The implementation of the TMDL is essential to the restoration and protection of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem and the waters that flow in and around national park sites across the region. The backstops provide accountability for those areas unable to meet targets and are essential to the long-term implementation and success of the TMDL and must be continued.

Amendment #90 (Original #154) by Rep. Stauber (MN): NPCA opposes this amendment which prohibits any funds from being used to expand the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The Boundary Waters provide connectivity for clean water and wildlife habitat in Voyageurs National Park. The intent of Congress in passing the bipartisan Wilderness Act was to ensure the protection of these areas in perpetuity and it is up to Congress to expand any Wilderness areas.

In closing, we urge you to oppose this deeply damaging and unrealistic bill and amendments and instead work with the Senate to produce a bipartisan bill that can move forward without deep cuts and harmful policy riders that would undermine our national parks.